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New York City is the sports cap mecca of the universe

At one point in time I was emptying my bank account on a weekly basis to purchase any assortment of Cleveland sports hats. Because if I wasn’t living at home in Ohio, I was damn sure to be repping my teams in the Big Apple, the city where I have named THE sports cap mecca of the universe (and demographically speaking, New York has the most diverse population in one area, so there are just bound to be more hats).

The funny thing is though, despite my heart and soul being poured into Cleveland sports (and yes, my CLE hats!), I would say a good 50% of the time people’s caps are a mere fashion accessory. So YES: that guy on the 6 train with the Cavs hat probably has no idea who Timofey Mozgov is, or that the city of Cleveland has underwent years of turmoil never having won one single championship; this guy just liked the damn Cavs hat. Simple as that.

It took me a while to get over this phenomenon until I finally purchased my first non-Cleveland hat: an LA Dodgers cap (I guess my only justification would be I had spent some time living in the SoCal city.) Now, if you know anything about sports at all, the Dodgers used to be a Brooklyn team (you still see people rocking the classic Brooklyn “B”, similar to the Boston “B”, but I would describe as more defined). So are the old school Brooklyn Dodgers fans silently judging me when I walk by with my LA hat? I don’t know, maybe the same way I was silently judging every person wearing a Bulls cap last playoff round when they were up against the Cavs. But who am I to say anything? I am, after all, now a Cleveland Indians fan walking around in a LA Dodgers cap – so none of it makes sense!

The hat algorithm in New York City goes as such: most can be spotted wearing the classic NY Yankees hat (buncha jerks!!!); you will also see a frequent rivaling Boston Red Sox “B” in the Yankee crowds, the Philadelphia Phillies “P” guys are out there, too. Perhaps you will see these hat people on the train, or walking down the street (I have even seen a few Charlotte Hornets caps guys strolling around!).

There are hella Mets fans to be seen—I would say since they have been on their hot streak more people have been jumping on that bandwagon. SPEAKING OF BANDWAGONS: Rangers caps (and jerseys and jackets and keychains and—) are of course another fanbase you can expect to run into on the streets. Jets fans brev it out where they can, without getting eaten alive by Giants fans (and I as a Browns fan totally relate to this feeling of staying loyal to a losing team. BUT THERE’S ALWAYS HOPE!). The rest of the hats are just random. Obviously the Bulls get mad love per the Michael Jordan era—Chicago Bulls caps are almost as common as Mets caps—but for any small town team being represented in New York, you are a lonewolf amongst a sea of crowdenning East Coast teams.

Whatever the case may be for justifying your cap, it’s hard to attach loyalty to a person’s hat right away. Just the other day I was questioned about my Cavaliers hat. “The Cleveland Cavaliers, really???” To which I responded, “Yes, really, I’m from Ohio.” When I really wanted to be like “SORRY YOU ALL BUTT HURT ABaOUT LeBRON NOT COMIN’ TO THE KNICKS,” but I like to try and maintain a high level of class at all times when it comes to my sports.

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kaitlinduffy

Kaitlin Duffy is a writer from Cleveland. When she's not blogging or pondering the great complexities of the world and outer space, she is finding rare vinyl steals, visiting new places, laughing often, Instagramming everything in sight, watching movies, or working on her first feature Port de Cleve.